Great site that tv.se - it crashed my computer as soon as I looked at it

Jamoolatips isn't that special in looks - but it needs sunglasses to look at it.

That tV site is using a Java script - this may be crashing your system.

In short, no, XOOPS will not be able to compete with Joomla at its current method of operation. We are not comparing two applicances side by side, software is a way of life a philosophy that manifast itself in a product.

The primary difference in Joomla and XOOPS is the level of co-operation between developers and the steerring group. With the lack of harmonious collaboration effort, Joomla will surpass Mambo and Xoops. It is the mindset and culture of the development community that will ultimately decide when, what and how things get done. Don't take my word, look at the progression of Joolma - in short time it ihas a heck of a develoment cycle, stable product and a huge user base that actually responds in short time to help request.

I think the question is, "Why this difference?" Road Maps are meaninless unless the development community is working together.

More talent, cloning or adapting for XOOPS CMS to emulate what you see in Joomla will unfortunately not be the solution. So there may be many technical differences between these products, the bigger picture is the "policy" and the level of co-operation which governs development. XOOPS is far behind Joomla - I wish it weren't that way.

The seemingly inability of the XOOPS in "getting it together" with the developers, steering commitee and including other devleopment ideas has produced the Cube fork. Which has again in short time, produced a secure XOOPS core and are on their way in producing an aggressive development community. I think it will be easier to produce modules that try to accommodate the features of Joomla than it will be to change the politics of Xoops. I do wish this would not be the case and that Xoop's inner circle would be more democratic in the way policy is made. There are also issues with regard to pride of ownership with this XOOPS site and product. In summary, the seed on which the XOOPS foundation is built would have to change to be in step with Joomla.

Regards,

Rick

If I put an annoying, rotating flash banner at the top; will it be more modern? Perhaps white text on light gray buttons would make it more modern. Those are very readable on an LCD screen by the way.

Or maybe I could resize my text so its small enough to be a nuisance to read on a high-resolution monitor. What is "modern"? I'm not a graphic designer, I'm a writer and photographer.

Like I said though, my website is evolving. When I find the time, I'll "modernize" it with all those pretty graphics from Joomla.

My thoughts also Prez....

Some Jamoola layouts are ok - but this isnt anything special. I much preffer your, clean, readable one.

So the essential argument seems to be: "Mambo sites look prettier"... thats in the eye of the beholder I think.. The Site of the month competitions have shown what can be done with people thinking outside of the Box... (to borrow from Miths favourite expression)

Perhaps, as Bluenova says, flexible block positioning etc is a plus in Mambo's favour... but again this can also be gotten around with block positioning hacks and just rethinking of the layout of a page.

Theres room for improvement with XOOPS perhaps - but I think we've not scratched the surface with design possibilities yet.

you're close davidl, but the real argument is that Joomla has greater flexibility for the web artist/designer. Because it let's you easily arrange the blocks how YOU want or let's you easily insert the banner that YOU want etc it means there is greater potential for pleasing design.

Of course you're quite right in saying that this also means you're far more likely to find truly awful sites - the point is that the makers had the flexibility to make it look that bad! If you give a child a pencil, they'll make a mess, if you give them twenty different colour crayons, it'll most likely just turn into a bigger mess.

However don't consider this a complaint at XOOPS - in fact it's the other way around - XOOPS is very limiting in comparison to Joomla's design potential - however this is what you need for a CMS.

Joomla will let you put blocks wherever the hell you want - however it will also totally screw up your site design without telling you. If you are managing content across thousands and thousands of pages (as you probably will be with a CMS) then you want to know that when you move, say a block, and it looks fine on one page, it'll look fine on all.

Xoops is incredibly robust in this aspect and it's almost unheard of to find a XOOPS template that looks terrible in certain browsers, or doesn't work, it's highly common with Joomla and co.

I think XOOPS is in a great position, providing the developers use their advantage. Essentially they can simply watch the opposition. If they discovered that users were really like the fact you can add TWO far right blocks in joomla - then for the next build add a right block and a far right block. Problem solved AND you are still the more stable for the end-user.

Likewise as this discussion started - if people are actually being drawn away from XOOPS because other CMS' like Joomla let you insert thumbnails for news items eaily on recent news lists, then add this feature!

At the end of the day XOOPS is far more stable and vastly more user-friendly. The latter being the single biggest advantage for any CMS in the world today - far too many are unwieldy with illogical terminology.

And I'd say that was a big plus for xoops.

The thumbnail feature has been requested for SmartSection - I would hope that if people want this for news, that they submit a request to Hervet as well

Quote:

What a crap site layout. Why do people build sites that are WIDTH=800 pixels wide. If you do, have a look at how terrible it looks on a screen that is 1280 pixels or more wide. For goodness sake use WIDTH=100%

The old expression: "One man's meat - another man's ulcer" is often true when it comes to web design

Picking on a few points made by defwind77..

* I think joomla's popularity has also to do with it having the mambo userbase to build upon.
I have tested it recently, following this thread, and didn't find help/assistance very forth coming..

* Very good point regarding way of working.. Transparency in the way the system is being developed will be very helpful for working with xoops. I think that maybe:
a - A large link for module and core development *suggestions* could be useful.
b - If such suggestions could go into a polling pool so users can, together and transparently, see which new developments are coming and when - will be useful. It could mean that people have more stake in the system..
Also, tools which help in collaborations, could be useful. For example, a collaboration forum..(?)
Collaborations will be very useful in fast and varied development..

* I think that replies such as "go and hack a module" or "make a module" - should be discouraged. If a person asks certain questions, it might mean they do not have the technical know how. Maybe building a body of tutorials for various hacking, similar to the SEO Q&A, but less technical, could go some way for addressing that..(?)

Well..

Best wishes!

Aharon